The Effect of Multiple Buckling Modes on the Postbuckling Behavior of Plane Elastic Frames. Part II. Asymmetric Frames

The postbuckling behavior of an asymmetric one-bay, two-storey frame with clamped edges is analyzed. Columns have different bending stiffnesses and are pairwise of the same length. By assuming columns to be inextensible and shear undeformable, and beams to be rigid, two buckling modes are possible which are described by the sidesway of the lower floor with a rigid horizontal displacement of the upper floor and a sidesway of the upper floor, the lower floor undergoing no displacement. By properly selecting the ratios EI/h² (EI being the bending stiffness of a column and h its length) the two buckling modes may occur simultaneously. A third buckling mode is also possible which is characterized by no displacement of the horizontal beams and local deflection of one or more columns in the shape of a beam with fixed edges. This third case will not be considered in this paper. The Koiter general nonlinear theory of elastic stability recast in a form convenient for the development of finite elment models along lines similar to the recent presentation by Budiansky has been employed in the analysis. Nonlinear constraints on the field variable φ (φ being the cross-section rotation) are accounted for by means of Lagrangian multipliers. Results show that the postbuckling behavior of a single buckling mode is always asymmetric unstable and depends both on the degree of asymmetry of the structure and on the ratio h/l, l being the frame span. The occurrence of simultaneous buckling modes exacerbates the imperfection sensitivity of the structure.